Surgical procedures increasingly involve the use of surgical robotic systems. Rather than operating entirely autonomously, such surgical robotic systems are typically at least in part under the control of a human operator, for example, to control the movement of a surgical instrument mounted to a surgical arm of the surgical robotic system. As such, surgical robotic systems may assist the human operator in performing a surgical procedure.
For that purpose, a surgical robotic system may be provided with a surgical arm which comprises a movable arm part, with the movable arm part comprising an instrument connector for mounting of a surgical instrument. Accordingly, the surgical instrument may be positioned by the surgical arm. A human machine interface may be provided for receiving positioning commands from a human operator for controlling the movement of the surgical instrument. An actuator may be provided for actuating the movable arm part to effect the movement of the surgical instrument in accordance with the positioning commands provided by the human operator. Examples of this approach may be found in the field of tele-operation, where a human operator may operate a master device, e.g., a motion controller, to provide positioning commands for a slave device, e.g., the aforementioned surgical arm.
Surgical robotic systems of the above type are known per se.
For example, US2013338679 A1 describes a surgical robot for performing minimally invasive surgery, comprising a surgical arm, wherein said surgical arm has a fixed surgical arm part and a movable surgical arm part which is movable with respect to said fixed surgical arm part. The surgical arm further comprises a surgical instrument mounted at said movable arm part. A manipulation arm is pivotally engaged with the second engagement point of the fixed surgical arm part using one end of the manipulation arm. It is said that a manipulation control and driving means could be used for controlling the manipulation arm.
The movement of the surgical instrument may be in a longitudinal direction, e.g., along the longitudinal axis of the surgical instrument. This direction is also referred to as the longitudinal axial direction, or in short the axial direction. Such longitudinal movement allows the surgical instrument to be moved towards a surgical target within an interior, or on a surface of an exterior of a patient. Accordingly, the surgical instrument may be used to modify (biological) tissue near the surgical target, to deliver an agent to the surgical target, etc. Examples of such surgical instruments include, but are not limited to, forceps, mechanical cutters, coagulation cutters, scissors, injection needles, sealing devices, etc.